‘In God We Trust’

Richard A. Sokerka

As we celebrate the 243rd birthday of our nation today on July 4, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how our Founding Fathers placed their full trust in God. Their strong moral and spiritual convictions helped them to form the foundation of our great nation.

Our country is blessed to have a rich heritage of faith — our foundation is uniquely Christian. Scriptural beliefs and principles are woven into all of our nation’s foundational documents.

Looking back at our nation’s origins nearly 250 years ago, it is undeniable that America literally began as “One Nation Under God.”

John Adams stated: “The general principles upon which the [Founding] Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity.”

Religious liberty was such an important issue for our Founding Fathers that they wrote the First Amendment to protect it.

That foundational protection of religious liberty is reflected in a U.S. Supreme Court decision June 10. In that decision, it denied the request of Michael Newdow, an atheist, asking the Supreme Court to review the decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected the atheist’s attempt to strip the national motto, “In God We Trust,” from U.S. coins and currency. Newdow had argued that it “established a monotheistic religion” but the Court ruled that the motto does not violate the First Amendment by establishing a religion, stating, “It is not an establishment of religion simply to pay tribute to our nation’s religious heritage.”

On this birthday of our nation, the land of the free and the home of the brave, let us never forget that in the United States of America, religion is a natural part of human culture and has a natural — and rightful — place in the public square.

God bless America!